The latest from TechCrunch
- Exclusive Picture Of Unlaunched Apple Tablet (circa 1990)
- Neo Technology Commercializes Next Generation Graph Based Database
- Matt Galligan And Joe Stump Are Building An Infrastructure For Location-Based Services
- Stalqer Peers Into Your iPhone For A New Level Of Location-Based Creepiness
- Consumer Review: The Best Smartphones On The Market
| Exclusive Picture Of Unlaunched Apple Tablet (circa 1990) | Top |
| Yeah ok it isn’t that Apple Tablet. But this is a picture, taken around 1990, of the Apple Pen Mac, a little known and never launched Apple tablet project. As far as we can tell there is no other image of this device anywhere on the Internet, and very few references to it at all. The Pen Mac was a fully functional Mac computer (it even played the Mac startup chime ) with a pen based touch screen. The screen itself was identical to the Mac Portable , but with the addition of pen touch. And of course the case was a lot smaller than the Mac Portable. The Pen Mac was supposedly not much more than one inch thick. Users could plug in a keyboard and mouse or easier input. Holding the Pen Mac in the picture is Glam CEO Samir Arora , who told me about the device over dinner a couple of weeks ago. Arora worked at Apple on the project, eventually going to a spinout company, Rae Technology , which was designing applications for the Pen Mac. Rae Technology eventually morphed into NetObjects . The Pen Mac project was led by Paul Mercer but was eventually axed in favor of the Newton. Then Apple CEO John Sculley wanted a PDA, not a tablet. From a 2006 NY Times article : Then in 1987 and 1988, after Steven Jobs had been ousted from the company by John Sculley, then chief executive, engineers like Mr. Mercer were given wide latitude in exploring new ideas at the company. On his own, Mr. Mercer pursued two projects for hand-held computers, code-named Swatch and Pen Mac. In the early 1990’s, before a meeting of Apple’s top executives, he showed off the Macintosh software running on a hand-held computer, long before products like the Newton, Palm Pilot or the General Magic communicator had been introduced. The technology demonstration was impressive, but Mr. Mercer acknowledged that he was naïve about the reception he would receive for his invention. Instead of being welcomed with open arms, he received a call from Mr. Sculley noting that Apple had just signed an agreement to work with Sharp Electronics on the Newton technology and that there was no room at the company for competing hand-held computing projects. And that was the end of the Pen Mac. There is a picture here of a second generation Pen Mac device called PenLite that Arora tells us was also cancelled. Another picture of PenLite is here . A final picture , also labeled as PenLite, sure does look similar to the tablet that Arora is holding. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. | |
| Neo Technology Commercializes Next Generation Graph Based Database | Top |
| A new generation of database products and companies is beginning to emerge, and one of the more interesting examples is Swedish-based Neo Technology , the developer and vendor of the neo4j graph based database (graph in the data structure sense). The neo4j product has been in development for over 8 years, and Neo Technology are today announcing a new $2.5M round of funding. The company has been developing the neo4j project as a commercial product, and is now taking it to market with a dual-license model. | |
| Matt Galligan And Joe Stump Are Building An Infrastructure For Location-Based Services | Top |
| Last May we wrote about a new company called Crash Corp that was being formed by Digg’s long-time Chief Architect Joe Stump and Social Thing founder Matt Galligan , who were looking to build alternate reality mobile games. Over the last six months a lot has changed: the team has changed the company name to SimpleGeo , and they’re now building something that’s entirely different, and significantly more ambitious: an infrastructure that other applications can use to easily build location-based applications. The new company caught our interest when we learned that AOL’s former chief life streamer David Liu had invested in the company. Stump and Galligan declined to comment on the company just yet (they’ll be launching at Under The Radar next month) but we were able to glean some information from Under The Radar’s directory of presenters. SimpleGeo is ready-to-use location infrastructure. They currently have three products: a geo-spatial Context Engine, Storage Engine and a comprehensive SDK. The SimpleGeo Context Engine enables application developers to quickly and easily get relevant information about specific locales including (but not limited to) ZIP codes, real-time weather, and geo-tagged media. Additionally, the SimpleGeo Storage Engine makes it possible to store and query location data in a scalable fashion, as well as perform complicated geospatial operations effortlessly. Located in Boulder, CO It sounds like SimpleGeo is looking to become something analogous to an “AWS for location”. And that may well be a very smart move — Location based services are clearly about to explode as more mobile devices support GPS and fast internet connections. And you can be sure that the new startups and services that emerge won’t want to have to reinvent the wheel whenever they want to integrate location into their app. We’ll be keeping an eye for more on this one soon. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. | |
| Stalqer Peers Into Your iPhone For A New Level Of Location-Based Creepiness | Top |
| Foursquare and Loopt have put location-based social networks on the map, and have potentially created a viable business model as well. Now there’s a new kid on the block, called Stalqer, which best described as a Foursquare on steroids. The iPhone app, which will be free, should hit the app store in the next few hours. In theory, Stalqer is very similar to Foursquare in that it tracks your and your friends’ locations and broadcasts this information via the application and through push notifications. But one of the key differentiators is the fact that Stalqer updates the location in the background, which Foursquare, and most other apps, don’t do at the moment. This is because the device does not allow third party apps to run in the background. But Stalqer has found a way to record your location without you having to actually open up the application. So how does Stalqer do it? The app sets up an email account which operates in the background, and collects large amount of data out of the POP or IMAP handshake relevant to location, primarily via the IP address. Stalqer’s founder Mick Johnson also tells me that the app contains iPhone configuration profiles that make it easy to install an email account pointing to Stalqer’s servers on the user’s iPhone. So when the phone checks for mail, the app gets a location point, which Johnson says happens on average, every 15 minutes. Loopt has also found a work-around the whole background update issue by partnering with other companies in the mobile industry for an "Always-On Location Service (which costs users $3.99 per month). In addition to background functionality, Stalqer lets you import your Facebook friends, via Facebook Connect, to the app. If your friends have made their general location public via Facebook, The app then syncs your friends with your iPhone contacts and will then show you where your friends are. So, Stalqer will basically pull any public information about your friend (i.e. what city they live in) and show where the friends is on your application, if if they haven’t downloaded the app. At the moment, you cannot see anyone on Stalqer who is not your friend on Facebook. You can see your friends’ locations via a list format and on a detailed, high quality map. Similar to FourSquare, you can check into listed locations rather then just the app recording your location via an IP address. Stalqer has close to a half million bars and restaurants listed in the U.S and you can add locations as well. Stalqer will steadily add non-U.S. locations in the future. The app is actually missing one of the key gaming aspects of FourSquare—the ability to collect badges or mayorships. Since the app operates in conjunction with an email account and your address book, it allows you to conduct a conversation with your Stalqer friends within the app. The app also features an augmented reality view of your friends’ locations. And while Slaqer is only available for the iPhone, Johnson is hoping to roll out versions for the Blackberry and Android in the future. So for me, the key issue with this app is privacy. The background location technology is certainly innovative but I really feel strange about Facebook friends knowing where I am at all times, even if I have not started up the app on my phone. Privacy has been an issue with Foursquare and I suspect that it will become an issue for Stalqer. But Johnson says that Stalqer has very powerful security settings that let you specify whether you want your location broadcasted and you can also indicate specific friends who can see your check-ins. Plus you can make sure the app only shows your greater surround area (i.e. San Francisco) vs. your exact location within the city. And you can make customer lists with close family and friends who can see your detailed whereabouts. At the moment, Stalqer isn’t monetizing the app because Johnson is waiting to see if the app will gain popularity. And Johnson adds that Stalqer is aimed towards a younger crowd (which is apparent from it’s demo video ), who may not be as concerned with the privacy issues. Stalqer seems to be focused exclusively on broadcasting background location and tapping into your social graph via Facebook whereas Foursquare’s new app includes gaming, Twitter integration and a few more bells and whistles. But Foursquare is addictive and Stalqer could be too, if you really want to stalk your Facebook friends. Of course, Facebook is rumored to be launching their own location based technologies, so it should be interesting to see how that effects Stalqer. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. | |
| Consumer Review: The Best Smartphones On The Market | Top |
| With the Holiday Season nearly upon us, we at TechCrunch thought it would behoove us to share with everyone a definitive list of the best smartphones currently available (or launching shortly ), so as to help with any possible purchasing decisions which may occur in the upcoming months. In making our decisions, we looked at these phones from the standpoint of the consumer. Thus, developer struggles , business security, and other such problems were not taken into account. Instead, functionality, price, and the overall usefulness of various smartphones made up the criteria which we adhered to during our reviews. These phones can be found on a multitude of carriers, operating systems, and continents. Feel free to comment below on the merits of this list of the best smart phones currently available. iPhone 3GS You know you’re on top when phone manufacturers are constantly struggling to produce an “iPhone killer” . The iPhone 3GS boasts a massive App Store (with nearly 100,000 apps now), the largest developer base, and is simply put, the best phone on the market. Status : Launched June 19th, 2009 on ATT Screen : 3.5-inch 480 x 320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi widescreen Multi-Touch display Dimensions : 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm; 135 grams Camera : 3 megapixels w/ AutoFocus, No flash Battery : 1150 mAh Li-Ion Standby Time : 300 hours Talk Time : Up to 12 hours on 2G; Up to 5 hours on 3G Processor : Samsung S5PC100; 600 MHz Internal/External Memory : 16GB or 32GB Extras : 3.5mm Headset jack, accelerometer, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled Operating System: iPhone OS Price: $199 for 16 GB; $299 for 32GB Motorola Droid If any phone is going to challenge the iPhone’s supremacy, it will be the Verizon Droid . The Droid is on a superior network than the iPhone, and will be running Android 2.0 which has a much improved user interface over previous versions of Android. Status : Rumored to be announced October 28th; Verizon Wireless. Screen : 3.7-inch/480×854 Full Touchscreen with Full QWERTY Slider Dimensions : 60 x 115.8 x 13.7 mm; 169 grams Camera : 5.0 Megapixels with AutoFocus Battery : Li-ion 1400mAh Standby Time : 450 Hours Talk Time :7 Hours Processor : Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 processor; 600MHz Internal/External Memory : 512MB Flash, 256MB RAM/MicroSD (16GB capacity) Extras : 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled Operating System: Android 2.0 Price: Unknown Palm Pre The Palm Pre signaled the resurrection of Palm. It is well-designed, and has a very promising OS, which if tweaked and improved slightly, can challenge any OS on the market. Status : Available June 6th on Sprint. Available October 13 in Germany and October 16 in UK and Ireland Screen : 3.1-inch touch screen with 24-bit color 320×480 resolution HVGA display and full QWERTY keyboard Dimensions : 100.5 x 59.5 x 16.95 mm; 135 grams Camera : 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and AutoFocus Battery : 1150 mAh Standby Time : 250 Hours Talk Time : 5 Hours Processor : Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 processor; 600MHz Internal/External Memory : 8 GB Extras : 3.5mm Headset jack, accelerometer, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled Operating System: Palm webOS Price: $149.99 HTC Hero/T-Mobile G2 Touch/Sprint HTC Hero The inclusion of HTC Sense makes the Hero the best Android phone currently on the market. It is fast, stylish, and easy to use. Status : HTC Hero Launched July 24th for Orange UK. T-Mobile G2 Touch Launched July 29th. Screen : 3.2-inch/ 320×480 HVGA resolution; Full Touchscreen/TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen Dimensions : 112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm ; 135 grams Camera : 5 Megapixels with AutoFocus Battery : 1350 mAh Lithium-ion battery Standby Time : Up to 750 hours for WCDMA, Up to 440 hours for GSM Talk Time :Up to 420 minutes for WCDMA, Up to 470 minutes for GSM Processor : Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz Internal/External Memory :288MB/MicroSD 2.0 Extras : 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, accelerometer, Bluetooth and GPS enabled Operating System: Android Price: $179.99 BlackBerry Bold The BlackBerry Bold is RIM’s crowning achievement thus far and the impending Bold 9700 should see widespread adoption. Status : Available on AT&T; Bold 9700 available November 2nd, 2009 Screen : 2.6 inch Half VGA resolution Dispay Screen; 480 x 320 pixels; 65,000 colors Dimensions : 114 x 66 x 15; 136 grams Camera : 2.0 MP w/ AutoFocus Battery : Li – Ion, 1500 mAh Standby Time : 324 hours Talk Time : 4.5 hours Processor : 624 MHz Internal/External Memory : 1 GB Extras : 3.5mm Headset jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS capable with extended ephemeris Operating System: BlackBerry OS Price: $199.99 HTC Magic/T-Mobile MyTouch 3G The MyTouch 3G is an easy to use, stylish Android phone. The absence of a standard 3.5mm headset jack is a bit of a disappointment, but otherwise this phone is quite powerful and useful. Furthermore, Mike quit the iPhone for the MyTouch, and that has to mean something. Status : HTC Magic Launched May 1, 2009 and July 10th, 2009 in Japan; MyTouch 3G launched July 8, 2009. Available through T-Mobile, Vodafone, and Docomo Screen :3.2″ /320 x 480 HVGA Touchscreen/TFT, TFD, LCD 262k Dimensions : 113 x 55 x 13 mm; 118.5 grams Camera : 3.2 Megapixels with AutoFocus (MyTouch has a 5MP camera) Battery : 1340 mAh Lithium-ion battery Standby Time : 420 hours Talk Time : 7.5 Hours Processor : Qualcomm® MSM7201a™, 528 MHz Internal/External Memory :192/288 MB (Underclocked)/ MicroSD up to 32GB Extras : HTC ExtUSB Headset Jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS enabled Operating System: Android Price: $99.99 (T-Mobile MyTouch $149.99) BlackBerry Storm 2 The BlackBerry Storm 2, while an improvement over its predecessor, still lacks the “wow” factor necessary to push it higher up on this list. Status : Available on Verizon Wireless October 28th, 2009 Screen : 3.25 inch 360 x 480 pixel touchscreen; 65k colors Dimensions : 112.5 x 62.2 x 13.9 mm; 160 grams Camera : 3.2 Megapixels w/ LED flash and AutoFocus Battery : 1400 mAh Li-Ion Standby Time : 270 hours Talk Time : 5.5 hours Processor : 528 MHz Qualcomm processor Internal/External Memory : 2 GB/16 GB microSD Extras : 3.5 mm headset, GPS, bluetooth, and wi-fi enabled Operating System: BlackBerry OS Price: $179.99 BlackBerry Tour Our biggest qualm with the BlackBerry Tour is its lack of Wi-Fi. Other than that however, the Tour is a great phone if you’re a chronic email user or if you text message a lot. Status : Available on July 12, 2009 through Verizon and Sprint. Screen : 2.4 inch 480×360 pixel display screen; 65,000 colors Dimensions : 112 x 62 x 14.2 mm; 130 grams Camera : 3.2 Megapixels with AutoFocus Battery : 1400 mAHr removable/rechargeable cryptographic lithium cell Standby Time : 336 Hours Talk Time : 5 Hours Processor : 528 MHz Qualcomm processor Internal/External Memory : 256 MB RAM Extras : 3.5mm Headset jack, Bluetooth and GPS enabled. No Wi-Fi nor accelerometer Operating System: BlackBerry OS Price: $149.99 Nokia E71x The Nokia E71x is a sleek and stylish phone, but like the Magic, lacks a 3.5mm headset jack. Nonetheless, this phone is just right for those on a budget, given its $99.99 price tag. Status : Available on AT&T Screen : 2.4″ LCD (Color TFT/TFD) display screen; 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA); 16.7 million (24-bit) Dimensions :114 x 57 x 10 mm; 126g Camera : 3.2MP w/ Autofocus and Flash Battery : BP-4L 1500 mAh Li-Po standard battery Standby Time : 480 hours Talk Time : 4.5 hours Processor : ARM 11, 369 MHz Internal/External Memory : 110MB/ MicroSD Extras : 2.5mm Headset jack, bluetooth, wi-fi, and GPS enabled Operating System: Symbian OS Price: $99.00 Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. | |
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